


Waiting for the Sandbox to Blow

by Aishuu



Series: East Kingdoms Block Party [16]
Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms
Genre: Character Study, Culture Shock, Gen, Short, The Livejournal exodus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 03:34:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2566754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aishuu/pseuds/Aishuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enki is still convinced that Shouryuu is going to screw things up.  This is a short glimpse of the beginning of Shouryuu's reign.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting for the Sandbox to Blow

  
Komatsu Saburou Naotaka sometimes wondered why he had endured. He was a clever man, and skilled, but there were other men who were smarter and more talented. He knew his kirin wasn't any great shakes from the advisor standpoint, since Rokuta was as much a stranger to this land as he was.  
  
But he loved Enki and he loved En with a fierceness he hadn't known he had possessed. Once, he had loved his father and their kin, but that love paled in comparison to what he felt for his new kingdom. Every day, he fell deeper, and felt more strongly, that this was the place he belonged.   
  
Except when he was confronted by how utterly alien his ideas were to the "true" natives of this realm. Finding out about how marriage and childbirth worked in this realm made it very clear that he wasn't in Japan – or Wa as they called it here - anymore. The idea that a ruler should live among his subjects – albeit in better quarters – was nearly heretical.   
  
And that was only one example. Most of all, the idea that his life was tied to a talking horse's was just plain strange. But he would adapt, because those that failed to would only die. To his surprise, he found himself fiercely fond of Rokuta. There was just something about him that made Naotaka want to do his best.  
  
Sadly, that fondness wasn't always mutual.  
  
"I still think you're going to destroy En someday," Rokuta had said immediately after they had received the tenchoku at Untei Gate. He looked like a sulky child, pouting his lip out so cutely that it made the newly-named Shouryuu long to ruffle his hair and offer him a sweet. Which would probably not be well-accepted by the proud little kirin.  
  
"Someday I will," Shouryuu acknowledged, admitting one of the truths of their world. When the ruler lost his way – and it was inevitable, like the tides being influenced by the moon – the country would suffer. "But it's not going to be today."  
  
And that was what he told himself every day. Today would not be the one where he lost his path, and ruined the country Enki loved so. Each morning he woke up, he fought the battle anew.


End file.
